The Baby

The Baby
by Lisa Drakeford

The Baby by Lisa Drakeford is a well-written piece about a high school girl and her four friends. She did not know that she was pregnant, and has to give birth in the middle of her best friend's house party. This book gives teens a good glimpse into what their future would look like if anything were to happen to them regarding high school pregnancy. This book uses multiple voices in a shifting point of view in five different sections. The five sections are titled by the characters names to let you know which life you are going to get a peek into.
This book, while it has it's crazy baby plot, the other plots are super cute such as the pursuit for friendship, the pursuit for a partner, and, in some ways, the pursuit for truth. This book could be viewed as a health video in some ways, but compared to it, it's SO much BETTER. Depending on a video, the book is not corny or cheesy, and when it get too intense, you can put it down and pick it up later, and when you pick it up later, read at your own pace. A health video, depending on the video, is cheesy and corny and NOT well written.

If this book were a food, it would be watermelon and feta cheese. The watermelon, which is really yummy but can get everywhere really fast and then start to stick even quicker, is like the main plot with the baby being a serious issue. The feta cheese, which adds flavor to the already good watermelon, is like the mini plots because they are the toppers on the baby plot.

I really have to give this book a five out of five stars and a recommendation for the Teen's Top Ten because of its great execution of describing the teen mom life, and my information is based off of totally awkward health videos. I should mention that the ending should have deducted a fraction of a star because it left a cliffhanger, but it's all the more reason to add, even though it's not possible, another star. It also makes me want Lisa Drakeford to write another one. Oh, I looked her up online and coming up this year is a book called The Crash that I really want to read when it comes out because it looks so amazing, and I love books! If you think that you might love this book as much as I do, check her out at  https://www.chickenhousebooks.com/authors/lisa-drakeford/

             ~Libby

When You Leave

By Monica Ropal

Cass is convinced that everyone will leave her. Her father is gone and now her mother is married to some random rich guy she doesn't like and she has to go to a random private school. Cass is determined to stay out of the spotlight and stay in the background. However there is a cute boy named Cooper whose locker is next to hers. Although Cass doesn't want anything to do with him, they just click. Then all of a sudden Cooper is murdered. When Cass' friend is accused of killing him, Cass has to be the detective and find out who really killed him, because obviously Gav is being framed.

Honestly I really did not like the book. It wasn't very well planned out and the only thing I was even remotely interested was Mattie, who of course is the love interest in the end. The book starts off when Cass goes to a new private school that has nuns and she just wants to blend in. Cass isn't your 'typical girl' she's a skater girl, and she has other skater friends so she's cool and better than all the other girls at her school. So she's in detention one day and this guy- Cooper- comes in looking for something in a desk. When one of the nuns walks into the classroom he panics and starts kissing Cass. For no reason. With no warning. Of course the nun is all like 'oh you just wanted to see your girlfriend ok you can both go now' and she leaves detention. Cooper is of course like that was nothing don't think of it but I'll wink at you cause you're cute. Some time later Cooper walks up to Cass when she's alone and says 'you're not like other girls, you actually have emotions.' What exactly is that supposed to mean? He's known her for about a day and says she is special because she can feel things. Wow. So special.

Basically the entire plot of the book hinges on Cooper finding Cass special and not like other girls and Cass thinks the same thing of herself. Cooper doesn't treat Cass all that well, he doesn't try to get to know her and she just thinks she is so special because the popular boy likes her. The book could have been a lot better if it didn't mention that Cooper died in the summary. If it hadn't said that then the book would have had a plot twist and more of a mystery component. But no.

Another thing I didn't like about the book is that Cooper and Cass were in a relationship for about two weeks before he died. Which of course gives you so much time to know someone. And I understand that she wanted to solve the murder for her friend Gav because he's being framed but it wasn't that well written. I personally don't really like the whole 'kid knows more about murder than police do and manages to solve it' trope, it's overused and super unrealistic. However this book took that to another level. The only reason Cass was able to solve the murder was because of a cell phone. In a log. Right next to the crime scene. Because obviously the cops wouldn't have checked in a log for the phone, and you know, the killer wouldn't have just deleted the text or destroyed the phone or anything. And of course Cass would just have a dream about it. Dreams don't work like that. She's not talking to dead people. The dream makes no sense at all. It also bothered me that the killer was so obvious. I won't say who it is, but from the moment the character entered I knew he killed Cooper.

One more thing I don't like about this book: Mattie and Cass' brother. Cass' brother was autistic, he didn't talk well and didn't communicate well, and while I have no problem with autistic people, the only reason her brother was autistic was to show how little Cass connects to other people. It showed how much she was like her brother- just a quiet person who doesn't work well with others and no one really understands. It bothered me to no end that her brother was autistic for the sole purpose of showing how hard she has it. And then there's Mattie. Honestly he was the only character I liked. He was mute, so he could never talk, but Cass could of course understand him. It was never explained if he wrote on a piece of paper or if he signed to her but she could understand him while others couldn't. Mattie ends up the love interest and saves her and it's like the brother again, Cass only connects with people who don't talk much or at all. The reason Mattie was mute was because the author needed to show how hard Cass had it and how she doesn't connect with 'normal' people.

I did not like this book. I give it a 1 out of 5 stars, it just was not interesting or engaging. It was like a piece of stale bread. Overused, old, not tasteful and hard to get into. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

The Killing Woods

by Lucy Christopher

     One day, Emily Shepherd’s father, an ex-soldier suffering from PTSD, stumbles out of the woods carrying the dead body of Ashlee Parker, a girl from Emily’s school.  Emily’s father pleads guilty of manslaughter, saying he was enacting one of his flashbacks from battle, but Emily is convinced that he didn’t murder Ashlee.  The story is told in the alternate viewpoints of Emily and Damon, Ashlee’s boyfriend.
   Sadly, there wasn’t much I liked about this book.  I didn’t really like the writing style, especially Damon’s voice.  I didn’t like Damon much at all.  He thinks like he’s trying to be a tough guy in his head, and his attitude changed significantly as a character depending on whether the reader was in his head or viewing him as Emily.  Emily was fairly decent as a character, and she had reasonable doubts about her father and dealt with the difficulties of being viewed as the daughter of a murderer in a reasonable way.  However, she also felt superfluous.  I don’t think much of anything would be lost if her chapters were cut out entirely.
     My main problem with the book was that it hinged on Damon waiting to remember what happened the night Ashlee died because he had been drunk and high.  He and his friends had been in the woods that night playing the Game, but they lied to the cops, saying nobody else had been in the woods, making everyone even more sure that the murderer really is Emily’s father.  I’m still not entirely sure exactly what the Game is.  Something that involves running around the woods with collars and fighting each other.  That really could have used some explanation and made the book a lot more disconcerting than it needed to be.
     This is a 1.6.  I didn’t like Damon, I didn’t like the plot, and I didn’t like the writing style.  There was too much waiting as I read.  It was not, however, as bad as some other books I’ve read.  It’s flavored water because it tastes artificial and a little overpowering in the wrong way.  Plain water would satisfy your thirst better.

Cold Calls

By: Charles Benoit

Three teenagers get mysterious phone calls.  There is no phone number and no trace of the call.  The call requires that each Eric, Shelly, and Fatima bully a specific person in a specific way on a specific day.  They are all supposed to call each victim names, bump into them in the hallway, and finish it off by pouring mac and cheese onto the victim's head, video it, and post it on Youtube.  If Eric, Shelly, and Fatima don't do what the caller demands then the caller will reveal a big secret about each one of them to everyone they know.  At first, these high schoolers don't know each other, but they meet when they are all sent to the same bullying program.  For the remainder of the book Eric, Shelly, and Fatima work together to find out who the mysterious caller is and how to get the caller to stop.

I was surprised by this book.  To me, the plot seemed sort of dumb.  Why would I want to read a book about some teenagers that are getting blackmailed into bullying someone?  It really did not sound interesting.  That being said, that isn't exactly what the book is about.  Most of the book focuses on Eric, Shelly, and Fatima figuring out how to catch the caller and the backstory of each character.  I was also surprised by the depth of the characters.  They were surprisingly realistic.  The motives were also very fitting for each character.  The motives seemed to build the character, not just take from it.  Overall, this book was pretty good.  It did lack some excitement and was slow from time to time, but other than that, the book was interesting.  The one thing I found the book lacked was a realistic antagonist.  The motive behind the "cold calls" was underwhelming.  The ending of the book also seemed a little clipped and unclear.  However, what I found to be unclear I don't think was intentionally ambiguous.  I just thought the writing confusing at the end.  This book was like broccoli -- pretty tasty but could have been better.  It had a good flavor but not one I would call excellent.   This book was a 2.25

Landry Park

Written by: Bethany Hagen 

This book is similar to a packet of oyster crackers: tasty but not quite the same as the whole clam chowder.

Set in futuristic America, this novel follows Madeline Landry; she is the heir to her family's vast fortune but she's not so sure she wants it yet. America is controlled by the gentry, and the people are broken up into classes. First, there is the Uprisen, a select group of wealthy gentry who control basically the entire country. The heirs are expected to marry early and produce children quickly; this task falls to Madeline, and she is reluctant until she meets the very suitable and handsome David Dana. The second class of citizens is the middle class, people allowed to work in trades and service to the gentry and upper class. Finally, there is the lowest of the low, the Rootless, who handle the radioactive materials that provide the gentry with their endless wealth and power. The Rootless are sick and poor, and they are constantly dying as a result of the massive amounts of radioactivity they receive each day. The gentry, however, give little thought to these dying people other than to ridicule and look down upon their insignificant existences. But when Cara Westoff, Madeline's childhood tormentor, says that she is attacked by the Rootless, Madeline doesn't immediately believe her, and she feels she must sort out the truth. She travels to the Rootless community with David Dana, where she witnesses countless injustices. Her view of her previously idyllic home is completely changed, and she must decide how to handle her newly found awareness of her society. She must ultimately choose between justice and comfort.

This novel is a pretty good read. The plot is interesting and the story is fairly original. If you like princess-y type books and futuristic novels, this book is certainly a blend of the two genres. There are several plot lines to consider while reading, which is always more interesting than just one, so that is certainly a plus. In general, the book was good.

There are a few qualms I had that I might point out for consideration, however. Generally, the characters are of the slow variety; they do not catch on to simple plot points until long after the reader has. Along the same lines, they do not address their seemingly most relevant and intriguing problems first, instead they ignore them until there is no avoiding them. This is frustrating, as the reader obviously doesn't want to wait while the protagonist floats around, unaware or uninterested in their most pressing problems. Finally, and most importantly, the book was a little boring in some parts. I was never seized with the urge stop everything and read until I was finished. It was in some places a little drab.

The book in the end was not bad though, just a little slow. I would consider it for a quick read if you have the time. By the final couple chapters, it was definitely more interesting, and the pace did pick up.

3/5 stars!

Allies and Assassins

by Justin Somper


When Anders dies, his younger brother, Jared, who is only sixteen, must take his place as Prince of All Archenfield.  Most of the plot is focused on catching Anders’s assassin, and Jared befriends Asta, the physician’s niece and apprentice, as they attempt to crack the case together.  Jared doesn’t know where to begin, inexperienced as he is, and he is unsure which members of his council he can trust.
Despite his constant self-doubt as well as other characters pointing out his youth, I found most of the other characters to be much more naive than Jared.  The Twelve, along with the heir to the throne, make up Jared’s council, and they are heads of various jobs including the palace cook, the guard, the beekeeper, and the executioner.  They swallowed false leads with surprising gusto and seemed perfectly content to sit by as people were murdered around them.  Most of them were barely fleshed out, and there were minor character inconsistencies.  The beekeeper, for instance, is introduced as using few words, speaking only when she has something important to say, but later, another character rebukes her by saying that the beekeeper likes listening to her own voice too much.  There were a few characters, such as Jared’s younger brother, that fell by the wayside and half the time I forgot they existed.
Jared also had some character flaws.  He was inconsistent about his feelings toward Axel, the head of the guard, sometimes thinking about how close they were and feeling comfortable in his presence and at other times sure that Axel was going to kill him.  His behavior, as well as Asta’s, can only be described as bumbling at times.  His mistakes would work out half the time, as the plot required, and it got a bit tiresome when his rudimentary tactics brought out convenient answers.
That said, there were parts of the book I enjoyed.  There were some really nice passages, and the plot was, for the most part, fairly engaging.  There were a couple scenes that I think would be better to be left out - they were a little too revealing.  I think the next one in the series might be better because a lot of this book was set-up.
Overall, this is a 3.  There were solid parts but also a lot of parts that made me want to give up on the story and the characters.  It was like a cinnamon raisin bagel.  I love cinnamon and bagels are pretty great (though not as exciting as doughnuts), and this is a genre I enjoy, but some of the plot pieces and characters need to be picked out like raisins or they add an unwanted squish to the taste.

In the Shadows

by Kiersten White (text) and Jim Di Bartolo (art)

Charles is sick with a disease that doctors cannot cure, so his father sends him to a boardinghouse for fresh air with his brother, Thom.  There, they meet sisters Cora and Minnie as well as another boarder named Arthur.  Together, they delve into secrets left by Arthur’s father that seem to be following Charles and Thom in the form of a group of mysterious strangers.  It struck me as gothic in tone, complete with hidden pasts and witches.

Overall, this book was flat.  It is told in sequences of pictures (done by Jim Di Bartolo) alternated with text chapters (done by Kiersten White), and it seemed as though the authors skimmed over the story like an in-depth summary rather than really digging into it.  The entire time I read it, I felt emotionally detached.  The characters weren’t fleshed out and the depth of plot and world was hinted at rather than explored.

This book is a 2.2.  I’m left with very little to say about it given the lack of feeling I was left with after finishing.  There was some mild confusions over what I had just read.  It was like a cereal bar.  It’s not terrible, but you eat it, you finish it, and you go on with your life.  Eating the cereal bar is barely a blip in the day, which is how I felt about reading this book.  It’s good for a quick read if you need something to use up some time.

The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

This is a cool book. Set in Calcutta in May, 1932, the story is one of a boy named Ben and his twin sister Sheere. They were separated at birth, but they meet again when they turn 16. And there's this awesome guy trying to kill them. I think the villain is amazing; he is creepy, mysterious, and pretty much whatever makes a good villain. The book is eerie and well written. It's complicated, but I won't go into it because then I'll give the whole thing away. I'm not sure how to describe this book without ruining it, but it was great!

I rate it 4.8. The writing was wonderful, the story was exciting, and it only stretched the boundaries of reality a little. It was full of mystique, and it had a some nice humor, though I would not call the book comical. It was like chocolate mousse; it was dark, creamy, wonderful, almost perfect, and it makes you feel happy.